Garmeet made sure we took all forms of transportation even on a camel cart!
Me dressed in my Indian finery
The Experience of a Lifetime
Cindy and I keep referring to our trip to India is the trip of our lifetime. That is true in so many ways but I’d have to say that this experience staying with Garmeet and his family was at the top of those experiences. At this point we have traveled all around the Northern part of India. We’ve been at the India/Pakistan border, celebrated Dushera in the mountains, had our feet in the Ganges, went on a tiger safari, and so much more, but this stay was the most special because we have new family here in India in the little town of Jatganwara. Pretty much since the start of our trip we were planning to be in Jaipur during Diwali because it was suppose to be the best city of lights during the celebration and once we started traveling with Garmeet the plan changed to staying with him and his family during the actual holiday of Diwali.
We stayed in Jaipur, as planned but with some flight delays and our other changes it was the whirlwind tour I wrote about in my last post. Garmeet picked us up on the 20th at our hotel and we headed for his small village to meet the family. We first went to see Narendra (another new friend and owner of Northern India Tours) and his family at their new house in a larger town near Garmeet. His family greeted us very kindly, gave us gifts, fed us lunch and tea and we met chatted with his brother and nieces and played with his dog Tabasco. After, we drove to Jatganwara to see Garmeet’s homestead, where we were to stay for the next couple of days, and meet the family. Before arriving on the day of Diwali, we stopped in town to buy fireworks and some candy as a gift for the family. We had met some of his family via video chat already, his wife Parveen, his mother and sister-in-law, Pinky so we were welcomed with open arms to this lovely open-air homestead. We settled in to our room, talked with Garmeet’s brother and walked around to see some of the agricultural land including their kitchen garden and see some of the nearby relatives homesteads. We then helped to get ready for the prayer and celebration of Diwali stringing up flowers for the altar, while Praveen wrote with natural paints on the walls of the home, lights were strung up and decorative banners were hung above the doors. At some point during the early evening, we were brought into our rooms and dressed in the gifted celebration dresses from Garmeet and Praveen. Wow! such decorative and beautiful dresses with many colors, jewels, layered fabrics and lace along with the added Bindi on our third eye. We also helped Praveen into here beautiful celebration dress. After, we took part in the prayer for Diwali and danced in our new dresses. We ended the night with a wonderful meal shared with family and enjoyed the fireworks.
The house decorated with lights and painted walls for Diwali
The Lay of the Land
After sleeping like babies after our big Diwali celebration, we spent the final day in rural Rajasthan busy with exploring the surrounding land and meeting many new people. We started the day by enjoying some homemade Paratha and curd, then walking with Garmeet down the road to see the kitchen garden again and some of the nearby agricultural land. After, we participated in the making of ghee (mostly our participation was pulling the rope a few turns to spin the buffalo milk into the harder substance), Praveen and Pinky did most of the work, while Cindy and I watched on in amazement as the tasty ghee magically appeared. After, Garmeet, Praveen, Cindy and I jumped into the car and headed for Praveen’s hometown to meet her family and see the ceramic work of her father. It was some distance away, maybe about 45 minutes drive, so we rocked out with Hindi music recording ourselves doing car dancing (fyi, you might find it on Instagram somewhere). We started in this new village at Praveen’s father’s ceramic studio. Her father retired from his regular job and then began his work with ceramics, which I think was a business passed down in his family. It was amazing watching how smoothly and quickly he turned out different pots on the wheel, most of which would be sold in the market to hold water, ghee, and used for other household needs. We were shown around the property and shown how the pots were hardened in a pit with sawdust and how the old non-electric wheel worked. Pretty impressive.
Praveen’s father at the wheel
A buffalo eats in the courtyard
Cindy visits with Garmeet and his Mother in the courtyard while Praveen paints for Diwali
The last of the photographs taken with Praveen’s large family
We next went to the home of Praveen’s family. What I haven’t really talked about yet is how families live together in homes that are sometimes small but sometimes multi-level or multi-roomed. They generally have an open courtyard or big outside sitting area with the complex of rooms and the kitchen surrounding that area. Garmeet’s home, for example had a front gate with the washroom (shower and bathroom) outside the gate along with an open structure where his father slept and they kept the buffalos part of the time. After entering through the gate, there was a large open area with the kitchen the first room on the right, then a bedroom which we stayed in, then another area with a bed but also a storage area for wheat, then another larger storage area for feed and other things, then a couple more rooms for sleeping where Garmeet’s brother, his wife, Pinky, their son and Garmeet’s son slept and then another kitchen and washing area, then the barn where the buffalos stayed the other part of the time. Sometimes the buffalos were in the courtyard area. Another side note, Cindy fed the calf with a bottle on the day we arrived.
At Praveen’s family’s house, which was multi-leveled and multi-roomed, several parts of the family lived including Praveen’s parents, brothers and their wives and their children and Praveen’s grown son. The photo you see above with all of us is just some of the family who live there. Before we took this photo, Cindy and I went into the home, had some tea and met and chatted with everyone. After a short while, they began the big photo shoot where we took photos with each family, the mom and aunty, the children and then again, outside. This is something we are getting used to but it’s quite interesting, entertaining and a good way to get to know people. By the time we left, we felt like part of the family. Oh, and at some point, Praveen’s sister said just wait five more minutes, please, and suddenly appeared one of the young sons with some chocolate bars for us, as a gift.
We ended our day, going back to the homestead, having a great dinner, taking another walk around the small village, seeing a larger part of the agricultural land, meeting some friends and more relatives of Garmeet and taking our camel cart ride. As the sun was setting, we walked through the land and talked about the large snakes that lived around the area. Garmeet says, don’t worry, we may see one but they generally move out of your way, unless they feel threatened. He told us stories about times that he had seen the very, very large cobras crossing paths. A short while later, Garmeet touched a leaf and and it wiggled and it scared the bejesus out of me…it was quite the laugh but both Cindy and I were a bit jumpy from that point on. The next morning we sadly left early to catch our plane from Delhi to Mumbai.
Click on the photos below to see the gallery with our Diwali Homestay and our new family
